《One Online》
Chapter 1 - The Beggining
Sky has pretty dull life, work to home, home to work. No friend at all other than coworkers whom he doesn¡¯t talk much other than work related. He has decent looks which girls describe as cute rather than handsome.
Well you are maybe asking yourself, Sky is it really a guy¡¯s name? His father was astrologist so named him as Sky still better than Star isn¡¯t it? Both his parents died in car accident 5 years before, right after he graduated. So he is living in his apartment all alone without a goal in life. He has only one hobby which is gaming.
He is playing MMO games since 12 years old; it¡¯s been already 15 years, gaming ¡ What a waste?
Slap! Slap!
¡°Enough thoughts about the past! ¡°
Today is a nice day, new VRMMORPG going to release soon and I have already enough money for Virtual Reality Head Set model 12500XRQ15 and One online. I have been waiting to buy reality set and get rid of this old school gaming for 2 years.
Sky takes the bus to nearest mall and dives into technology center, swiftly grabs the VRM console and One online box, paying 4299$ for 12500XRQ15 and 199$ for One Online Collector¡¯s edition. VRM console is actually a small box while One online is pretty big compared to other and heavier. Trying to peek into box for a moment than stops himself, ¡°Well we will see at home anyway¡± and rushes home taking a taxi.
Sky carefully opens the box of VRM console, finds some kind of half helmet with big glasses with lots of heavy manuals. Opens the ¡°Instruction Manual¡±
Don¡¯t use in bath room!
Don¡¯t try to stretch!
¡.
¡°4 pages of do nots. who wrote this manual? So boring.¡±
Opens the One Online Box next; inside 1 plastic sword, 1 beginner¡¯s manual, 1 advanced manual and a few more things which he couldn¡¯t check. Takes Beginner¡¯s manual and starts reading
¡°One online is one with reality; player¡¯s real experience in life can be ¡..¡±
¡°Ahhh !! So long and boring. I believe in learn by experience. Who needs to read 300 pages of manual?¡± get mads himself and swiftly plugs the power and clips the optic internet cable and USB flash which contains One Online inside. Lies on the bed and wears the VRM console.
¡°Hope it loads fast, I hate to wait game installations and hope it doesn¡¯t ask lots of things. Next! Next! Next! what¡¯s the purpose¡± ¡ while talking to himself next pop up comes.
¡°Your welcome¡±
¡°Retina scan? Ohh well advanced technology, gimme game gimme game¡±
| New player detected, ID 51748895224 created |
¡°Of course I am new player let me select¡±
| One Online will start in 29 min 12sec, in meanwhile you can select your race |
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
¡°Elf, nice ears and so handsome, I look like elves from the Lord of the Rings. no no, let me try different I still have lots of times till game begin¡±
¡°Dragon¡± he shouted. Avatar changes to 2 meters of black dragon. ¡°Ohh, There is even Dragon race? Is there any race benefit?¡±
| Elemental Affinity |
| %5 Elemental Damage Increase |
¡°What about human?¡± he asks and avatar changes to human.
| Quick Learning |
| Skills Improve %5 faster |
¡°Ohh it¡¯s imba, I don¡¯t like grinding so let it be human than with default look¡± and system talks for the first time ¡°Are you sure?¡±.
¡°Ohh! so system can talk, why did you keep silent until than¡± he asks without answering the question and system replies in a soft tone ¡°Because it was not needed, Are you sure about your race?¡±
¡°Yes, Yes, I want to be Human¡± he shouts in an arrogant tone.
System again asks, ¡°What do you want your name to be?¡±.
¡°Sky¡± he replies.
¡°What about surname?¡± system asks in a soft tone again.
¡°Surname?¡± he becomes puzzled and starts thinking.
¡°You can¡¯t surname yourself as Surname please select an appropriate surname¡± system replies in a warning tone.
¡°lol I was just thinking loudly, don¡¯t surname me as lol either. Let it be Brightcloud, Sky Brightcloud¡± and talks inwardly ¡°nice name isn¡¯t it? But this system is a bit problematic or is he fooling with me¡±
¡°Name Accepted, Game will start in 4 minutes 7 seconds, please wait¡±, system replies in a cold tone.
¡°What about skills, class, traits, proficiency, is this all?¡± Sky asks to the system but no reply comes. So he just waits until game starts looking the clock on the screen going backward and suddenly bright light flashes, bright enough to blind everything and finds himself in a cave.
| The Starting Cave
Please select your path |
It is pretty dark inside cave, a bit gloomy. Dripping water can be heard from the further away and the sound of the wind. From left to right there are 12 tunnels each seems to be in the same size of 3 meters height and width. In the middle there are wooden signboards pointing each of tunnels something written on them with dark color.
Sky reads the signboards pointing to different tunnels:
¡°Path of Warrior¡± ¡°
"Path of Mage¡±
¡°Path of Warlock¡±
¡°Path of Craftsman¡±
And the at most right one ¡°Path of Advanced Players¡±
¡°12 different tunnel, I wonder what is inside but I am playing MMORPG¡¯s for 15 years so I am advanced player, I don¡¯t need any tutorial¡± tells to himself and steps into ¡°Path of Advanced Players¡± which teleports him to a town.
"Wait, what?"
Chapter 2 - Missing
Starting point in city is in front of a statue which symbolizes a knight on a horse. There seems to be no one around other than Sky. Sky keeps walking in the town looking around; there are a few wooden houses and a big stone building at sight which seems to have an emblem looking like a Libra horoscope.
The sensation in virtual reality makes Sky loose of himself for a while and idly keeps walking while looking around.
¡°Ohh wait, what is my class now? Stats? I guess I need to find out¡± while thinking to himself, he whispers in a low voice ¡°Show Status¡±.
| Status Window |
| Name: | Sky BrightCloud | Alignment: | Good |
| Level: | 1 | Class: | None |
| Race: | Human | Gender: | Male |
Fame: | 0 | Rank: | Commoner | [/tr]| Merit: | 100 | Evil: | 0 |
| Health: | 10 | Mana: | 10 |
| Stamina: | 10 | Soul: | 100 |
| Strenght: | 1 | Dexterity: | 1 |
| Intelligence: | 1 |
¡°What? 10hp? No class and 1 stats, what I am weakling? I wonder if everybody is like this. I need to find out quickly, I can¡¯t live as a noob. I need to find starting quests and try my power on very first mobs¡±
He keeps walking on the stone road until he meets a guard.
¡°Hi sir, I am looking for quest¡±
¡°Hi young man, you can take simple quests from the billboard. Just follow the road before the bridge you will see a billboard on the left¡±
¡°Thanks sir¡± and continues walking. Tries checking inventory and finds out he has a Newbie dagger and a Newbie sword.
¡°I am really a newbie¡±
| Newbie Sword |
| Type: | Sword | Durability: | 20 / 20 |
| Quality: | Poor |
| Effect: | Damage 1-3 |
Speed: | 0.8/sec | [/tr]| Newbie sword that is given at start, cannot be lost. |
Feeling of the sword makes him so real, he waves it around. Hold it tight and tries to hit a few time to the air. He was never into martial arts nor ever tried any kind in real life, but in his vacant time he liked to punch the wall wrapping around his hand with bandage or thick cloth to relieve stress. All he knew about swordsmanship was kendo tournaments he watched on the TV few times.
Arrives on the billboard and takes very first quest.
[table]| Kill Boings |
| Boings are eveywhere, eating our crops
Kill 10 boing outside town
Return farmer Hen |
[tr]Reward: | 100 exp
50 gold | ¡°Boing? Picture looks like Poring from Ragnarok Online, come on! Can¡¯t you be more creative? Anyway this Boings should be so easy but I don¡¯t have any skills or proficiency yet¡±
Sky passes the bridge next to billboard and arrives the vast field filled with colorful Boings.
He runs one of the blue ones, grasps his heavy sword with all of his power and hits the Boing.
¡°Huh?¡±
Boing just jumps to left with a ¡°boing¡± sound before his sword hits. He tries again with all of his power
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¡°How come this is just cute jumping monster¡±
He tries again and again and again with every direction horizontal and vertical but Boing just keeps jumping right and left and doesn¡¯t take any damage from his sword. He gets angry and throws the sword to side and punches the Boing with all his might.
He doesn¡¯t stops and hits 2 more times than Boing explodes and melts away leaving ¡°core¡± behind.
| Swordsmanship increased by %0.1 |
| Wrestling increased by %10 |
¡°1 Strenght and wrestling? I think I am still far from understanding this game¡¯s logic¡±
He grabs his sword and runs to another Boing, but still same thing happens. Miss! Miss! Miss until he decides to punch to kill the Boing again. He keeps killing until the quest is completed. From 10 Boing He collects 7 cores, 1 carrot and 5 gold. And he begins to walk back to the bridge to billboard where he can return the task.
On his way near the devastating tree he sees a cute rabbit.
¡°Ohh rabbit, I always like rabbits since childhood. I always wanted to pet one but never had opportunity¡±.
Crumples on his feet not to frighten the rabbit and crawls slowly pointing the carrot he got from the Boing.
¡°Come here little one, you look so cute, I won¡¯t hurt you¡±
Rabbit takes a few steps near him, than runs away swiftly.
| Taming Rabbit failed
Taming increased by %0.1 |
¡°What? Taming was proficiency or carrot was taming item? I should have taken that tutorial at start.¡±
¡°Too late to regret let¡¯s go give the quest and try to learn a bit more from the NPC¡¯s¡± talks to himself. 5 years of living alone taught him to be friend with himself. He calls it ¡°Thinking Loudly¡± though some calls it ¡°Madness¡±.
Returning to the board he realizes that he needs to find the farmer to return the quest and take the rewards from the farmer. So he asks farmer¡¯s whereabouts to nearest guard which is waiting near the bridge.
¡°Hi sir, I am looking for farmer Hen¡±
¡°Hi adventurer, you can find Hen near the corn yard. Follow the road 400 meters ahead you will see stone house on near the field¡±
¡°What? But I just came from there¡±
¡°Run once again than, running can increase your dexterity¡±
¡°Dexterity? As in stats?¡±
¡°Yes ¡±
¡°What is Dexterity for?¡±
¡°Dexterity is one of the 3 main stats. Increases stamina, speed of a person with weapons, crafting chance for craftsmen¡¯s, parry chance, accuracy and many more which you will experience in future¡±
¡°Can you tell me a bit about other stats as well?¡±
¡°This is all written in Beginners manual Chapter 1 Page 3, but I will briefly explain. Strength increases health, damage with weapons and weight limit. Intelligence increases mana and magical damage. There are also hidden effects which you should find out yourself.¡±
¡°May I ask another question sir?¡±
¡°Sure¡±
¡°Why I can¡¯t hit mobs with my sword, what should I do?¡±
¡°This is all written in Beginners manual Chapter 2 Page 28 to 37. If your proficiency is not high enough with swordsmanship you cannot use swords easily. I recommend you to see Master Huxen in Knight¡¯s Training Center within south of city. He can teach you basic swordsmanship¡±
¡°Thank you sir, But I have one last question¡±
¡°I am guarding in here, can¡¯t reply all day to commoners, but ask just 1 last question¡±
Sky thinks inside because there are a lot of questions passing through his mind which he wants to ask but guard states that he can only ask one last question. ¡°Should I ask about class, level or how to increase stats¡± and decides to ask about class.
¡°Thank you sir, I want to ask about class. When I check my status it says Class:None, how can I get one?¡±
¡°Young adventurer, this is all written in in Beginners manual Chapter 7 Page 217. Classes are chosen after you reach master level in one of main proficiencies¡± after replying the last question guard returns to his duty leaving Sky with lots of questions in his mind.
Leaving guarding post he finds the farmer Hen exactly at where guard described. He reports the completion of quest to farmer and further tries to communicate, but farmer tells he has lots of works to do and ignores the Sky returns to hoe the soil.
¡°What is wrong with this NPC¡¯s in this game, why they are ignoring me?¡±
Sky gets angry and hits one of the Boings which is hopping around the yard.
"Wait what?"
Chapter 3 - Book of Combat Arts
¡°I leveled without even recognizing. Let¡¯s see what the difference is¡±
¡°Show status¡±
| Status Window |
| Name: | Sky Brightcloud | Alignment: | Good |
| Level: | 2 | Class: | None |
| Race: | Human | Gender: | Male |
Fame: | 0 | Rank: | Commoner | [/tr]| Merit: | 101 | Evil: | 0 |
| Health: | 20 | Mana: | 10 |
| Stamina: | 10 | Soul: | 100 |
| Strenght: | 2 | Dexterity: | 1 |
| Intelligence: | 1 |
¡°But there is no difference, my strength increased by punching the very first Boing and it seems my health is also increased but other than that there is no visible improvement.¡±
He keeps talking to himself but because of pride he can¡¯t just log off and read the manual. Walking along the path to the south ignoring the guards and other NPC¡¯s around he finds a huge wooden structure with pretty big sign on it.
¡°House of Swordsman¡¯s¡±
¡°Yes, this is what I was looking for¡±
He checks inside the building sees no one around just vast amount of empty space made of wooden board like a dojo. He walks inside with careful steps.
¡°It¡¯s too silent as if building is haunted¡±
On the wall there are some kinds of figures of human holding a sword with two hands. Following the figures around, he realizes that there are more than 80 different postures each holding sword in a different way. One grasping the sword on top of his heart, the other one over his head, one at rear opposite from opponent as if hiding the sword and one pointing the floor and so on. He decides to copy posture of one of the figures.
Takes his novice sword out and holding it with both of his hands in the same level with his waist prolonging his arms a bit further leaving a bit space between his hands and his waist.
¡°I think it is something like this¡±
| Swordsmanship increased by %5¡± |
A man comes walking into the dojo:
¡°Nice try young man, but you are doing it a bit wrong. I am Huxen, Master of this House of Swordsman¡¯s, Council member of Knight¡¯s Training Academy¡±
¡°Hello, I am Sky, Sky Brightcloud¡±
¡°What you trying to copy is Chudan no Kamae, one of the postures of Kendo. But you should point sword to opponent''s throat, face or left eye. That will give you effect of an invisible weapon, since the opponent cannot see any part of the blade except for the very tip. Quick come here let me show you¡±
Following Master Huxen to the mid of the huge room, he keeps measuring this old man and try to understand his position.
Huxen has pretty thin body and swift movements. It is hard to see between his steps, as if he is 2D character or lagging within the game. One step ahead and he stops for a moment, sudden blur and he is standing 1 metres ahead. Not bothering with this phenomenon Sky arrives to the middle of the room with the Master Huxen.
¡°Now, take your posture let me correct¡± tells Huxen. He talks in a soft tone but his voice makes Sky¡¯s heart tremble. Sky takes the posture again and waits for instruction.
¡°Now think you are against your opponent, Think I am your opponent and point your sword against my eyes or throat. Just let me see tip of your sword nothing else. Adjust your arms depending on my size and yours. ¡±
With a few try, Sky gets a better posture at that moment a brief of smile can be seen on the face of Huxen.
¡°It seems better now.¡±
| Swordsmanship increased by %20 |
¡°Now try to slash, taking a step forward with your right foot, but don¡¯t move your left¡±
Sky tries to slash a few times as Master Huxen is described.
¡°Stronger¡± , Sky said to himself
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He gets exited with this sudden improvement.
¡°Faster¡±, Sky said to himself
| Swordsmanship increased by %5 |
| Skill ¡°Cutting Strike learned¡± |
¡°What? Stats? New skill? At last, I am getting stronger. I need to learn more about One online, but NPC¡¯s have bad temper, I should ask at most 2 questions.¡±, Sky says inwardly.
¡°Master can I ask a question¡±
¡°Go on¡±, Huxen says.
¡°I just felt my Swordsmanship increased, how can I check my current progress?¡±
¡°If you have followed Path of Warrior before, you would know all about this and would had Book of Combat Arts. Progress and Skills are written into Books of Legacy which are Divine Artifacts. There are different of Books like Book of Combat Arts, Book of Magery, Book of Necromancy, Book of Crafts , Books of Animal and so on¡±
Huxen puts his hand inside his pocket and looks for something. A few minutes later he takes out a brown colored book. ¡°Take this and break the seal, you will see your progress¡±
Sky takes the book and breaks the red wax seal.
| Book of Combat Arts |
| Type: | Book | Durability: | Indestructible |
| Quality: | Devine |
| Book of arts records one¡¯s legacy |
Inside book there is index, Swordsmanship written on with a sword symbol and Wrestling written below it with a hand symbol. He clicks on the sword icon to see if anything is going to happen.
*Example of Book from Ultima Online*
| Swordmanship: |
| Rank | Beginner | Progress | %30.1 |
| Effect: | Increases proficiency with sword.
Increases accuracy.
Increases damage. |
| Cutting Strike: |
| Requirement[/tds][td2]Beginner Swordsman |
| Effect: | %20 increased Critical chance
%20 more Damage
Effect improves with mana |
| Uses: | %20 of mana |
Sky goes back to index of the book and checks wrestling this time.
| Wrestling: |
| Rank | None | Progress | %26.7 |
| Effect: | Increases proficiency with unarmed combat.
Increases accuracy.
Increases damage. |
¡°Thanks Master, Can you tell me more about stats¡± and bows to Master Huxen showing his gratitude.
¡°I will just tell this, your limits with stats will increase along with your level. Keep practicing. Go for now, polish your swordsmanship skills, come back if you stuck at any bottleneck¡±
Sky bows again, not to anger this NPC which taught him a lot. He leaves to dojo to finds his next quests and tries his new sword skills on monsters. While walking as quickly as possible to southeast gate of Kyrin, a young guard stops him and shouts;
¡°Commoners are not allowed in this part of city, use other road and round around this region to reach the gate¡±
¡°Hi, I just wanted to reach the gate as quickly as possible and try my new skills¡±
¡°Go other way; if you don¡¯t leave I will use force¡±
¡°But I am a player, you are just an NPC¡±
¡°Know your place commoner; rank below Knight cannot enter this region¡±
Sky nods and remembers the Rank in his Status, ¡°Maybe there are different ranks in this game¡± he says to himself and leaves the place choosing longer route.
Chapter 4 - Zombification
Sky rushes into an old neighborhood, leaving the angry guard behind. Change in architecture can be seen with naked eyes. From new luxury building, structure changes into makeshift slums. Under the streetlight a man takes attention of Sky. Front of this tatty dressed man there is a handkerchief with few coins on. He decides that he can gain information from this man and approaches near old man.
¡°Hello old man¡±
¡°Hi sir, Could you please help this hungry man, I couldn¡¯t eat anything for 5 days¡±
Sky leaves 2 gold on the handkerchief thinking this is a good bargain against learning few things.
¡°I have a few question can you reply¡±
¡°I have 5 kids and a wife to feed, can you help me a bit more sir¡±, beggar says and Sky puts 2 more coins on the handkerchief.
¡°Can you reply my question now? Why guards calling me commoner, what¡¯s wrong with it¡±
¡°Because you are commoner as I am¡±
Sky feels like punching this man on the face, but thinks still can learn more so continues.
¡°What can change my rank?¡±
¡°Fame, once you are Over 2000 fame, your rank will become Gentleman¡±
Sky smiles and thinks ¡°after all this man enlightened me, what I need is fame to improve my rank. Let¡¯s query a bit more¡± and keeps asking the beggar.
¡°At upper neighborhood guard told me I need to be a Knight or up, how much fame required to be a Knight¡±
¡°I do not know exact requirement but what I know is every rank is 10 times harder than the other and after Gentleman there is Esquire than Knight¡± beggar replies.
Sky thinks ¡°so if Gentleman requires 2000 fame, Esquire is 20000 and Knight is 200000? That is ridiculous. There is too much gap; I need to learn how to earn fame¡± and asks the beggar
¡°How can I increase my fame¡±
¡°By killing monsters and highly famed players, completing quests, reaching a certain degree in arts, having lots of money and many more which I don¡¯t know about¡± and beggar looks Sky¡¯s face as if saying go already or maybe this is how he interpreted.
¡°Thanks old man¡± and he turn his back and walks away from this poor neighborhood to the southeast gate.
At right side just before the gate he finds another billboard, which quests are hanged. He chooses one for his level.
| Kill Zombies |
| Graveyard is filled with zombies
Kill over 10
Return to Southeast Gate Guard Lin
|
| Reward: | 400 exp
100 gold
10 gold per Zombie Brain |
¡°Interesting zombies are generally slow in games, should be good target to improve my swordsmanship skills and earn some experience.¡±, he talks to himself and walks out of the gate saluting one of the guards for fun but guards doesn¡¯t bother to reply.
Just outside the city gate he finds an old cute enemy, Boings.
¡°Nice last time I couldn¡¯t be able to kill you guys with my sword but this time I am going to make you pay¡± he shouts to one of the Boings which is jumping around on the grassy field. Boing looks him out of curiosity with puppy eyes. He takes his novice sword and runs near the Boing.
¡°Ahhhh !!!¡± shouts while running out of excitement and takes his posture and hits on Boing with all his might.
Boing jumps back and avoids the sword attack.
¡°These monsters are too small to hit, I can¡¯t take my posture and hit properly but I won¡¯t give up¡±, he talks to himself and hits on the Boing again with his sword, but it misses again and again, 4 times in a raw. Boing jumps forward and bites his leg
¡°Ahh! Damn thing, go hell!¡± he shouts and throws the sword to his side and handles the situation in old way by punching. Boing dies in few hits, he tries on another Boing but same thing happens, so he decides to proceed to Zombies. He follows the stone marbled road and finds the graveyard.
From graveyard it is possible to hear ¡°OoOohhh¡± sounds which he thinks that they are either ghost or zombies or some kind of monsters. Graveyard is surrounded by iron fences which are 2 meters high and inside there are 5 big tombs can be seen from the outside. He pushes the iron door of graveyard and walks inside
Zombie can be seen 20 meters ahead that seems to be alone. it slowly walks around randomly which makes him think that they have low intelligence. This time before rushing into battle he checks movements of the Zombie first, which makes him get bored after 5 minutes. Because Zombie does nothing other than walking around aimlessly and yelling ¡°OhoOohooo¡± from time to time.
Sky takes his Chudan posture and step by step closes near Zombie. Once Zombie is near 2 meters with sudden movement he steps forward and hits Zombie¡¯s head.
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¡°This Zombie is really hard headed¡± he talks to himself and hits again.
One online doesn¡¯t allow one to know maximum health of opponent, just shows percentage of health of opponent which seems to be %75 left after 2 strikes. He quickly calculates that ¡°this Zombie should have 80 maximum hp with 60 left so 6 more hits can kill this guy¡±, while thinking zombie waves his arm and hits heavily to the shoulder of Sky.
¡°What? I had 20 maximum hp earlier will I die like this?¡± panicking for a second he checks his health bar and sees %50 hp left.
¡°So my hp is increased somehow? I need to check my status after handling this guy, but it hits so heavy¡± thinking instructions of Master Huxen, ¡°if I can hit taking a step forward, I can take a step backward to avoid¡± he talks to himself.
While next attack coming from the Zombie he takes a step backward with his right foot followed by left.
He steps forward and hits the head of Zombie and quickly takes a step backward to avoid the attack from the zombie. As zombie is slow he can attack 2 times before Zombie moves its hands. After 6 consecutive successful blows, Zombie dies.
| Swordsmanship increased by %1 |
¡°Nice, I learned how to handle Zombies without taking any blow and Dexterity increased also swordsmanship but what is Tactics¡±
He opens the Books of Arts, which seems to be new proficiency Tactics, clicks on the tactics.
| Tactics: |
| Rank | None | Progress | %5 |
| Effect: | Increases physical damage by x/5 times |
After reading the description, Sky smiles stupidly within deep thoughts.
¡°So when Tactics is %5 my physical damage will increase by %1. If my Tactics become %100, my physical damage will increase like %20 percent. This is really good one¡± with joy on his face, he rushes to another Zombie and kills it with 8 successful blows without taking any damage. Without stopping he runs from one Zombie to another, not even noticing system information¡¯s.
After killing Zombies for a while he realizes that he can kill now with 6 blows instead of 8. Something should be changed, than he notices that he couldn¡¯t check his status for a while.
"Show Status"
| Status Window |
| Name: | Sky Brightcloud | Alignment: | Good |
| Level: | 3 | Class: | None |
| Race: | Human | Gender: | Male |
Fame: | 28 | Rank: | Commoner | | Merit: | 105 | Evil: | 0 |
| Health: | 110 | Mana: | 10 |
| Stamina: | 70 | Soul: | 100 |
| Strenght: | 11 | Dexterity: | 7 |
| Intelligence: | 1 |
¡°Health 110? Strenght 11? Dexterity 7? Fame 28? Level 3?¡±
"Wait, what?"
Chapter 5 - Friend
Sky gets shocked with new stats and sudden improvement and starts talking to himself;
¡°My health was 20 while my strength was 2 and now my health is 110 while my strength is 11, which means every 1 strength increases hp by 10. Should be same for intelligent and dexterity. Each dexterity should be increasing my stamina by 10 and each intelligent should be increasing mana by 10.¡±
¡°Since I solved one of my problem with stats, second mystery is how stats increase and how far I can increase one. If I keep stacking strength like this, I can have lots of hp and will be hard to kill target¡±
¡°Since there is no stat allocation by every level, and levels doesn¡¯t even increase health or mana what is the purpose of leveling?¡± Sky keeps thinking to himself.
¡°And there is also Fame thingy, how my fame increased by 28? What did I do different? Completed quest? ¡±
¡°No no. quest is still not given, I just killed Zombies, so Zombies should be giving Fame¡± thinking this, makes his eyes burn with fire and suddenly he rushes into nearest Zombie and chops his head with few moves.
¡°Yes, now my fame is 29, so each Zombie is giving 1 fame, but do I need to kill 2000 Zombies to become Gentleman, shouldn¡¯t be that hard¡± concluding his reasoning with himself, decides to return to town to give the quest. Near the iron gate of graveyard he see a girl with sword looking the Zombie. Girl holds her sword high over her head and with a sudden move slices apart the zombie into two pieces from the middle of the head to down.
¡°With just 1 move?¡±, Sky asks to himself. ¡°It takes more than 6 blows for me, how can this girl be this strong?¡±, thinks inwardly and purses his lips with disappointment. Girl puts his weapon into its sheath and walks toward Sky.
She looks so beautiful under dazzling sun, green eyes, white skin, black wavy hairs dropping below his shoulders and ¡°Hi, I am Cali¡± girl says.
¡°it says you are Calorfilia¡±, pointing above her head.
¡°Yes, Calorfilia is my name but I prefer to be called Cali¡±
¡°Ohh, I am Sky ¡. Sky Brightcloud, Nice to meet you. You are the first player I saw in this game¡±, he gets excited not just because she is the first player he talked also because he is a beautiful girl. Also everybody knowns he is a loner, never confident with girls, so he never tries to approach them first.
¡°Yes, there is not much advanced player¡±
¡°Advanced player?¡±
¡°You don¡¯t know? Only the ones who choose Path of Advanced Players comes to city of Kyrin, Bagua or Trimor¡±
¡°I wouldn¡¯t know. I just chose, because I thought I am an advanced online game player. Earlier I saw you killed Zombie with just one blow even though you are level 1, how can this be?¡±
¡°I am Iaido 2nd Dan in real life¡±
¡°Means?¡±, he asks with puzzled eyes.
¡°Means, system recognized my proficiency with swordsmanship¡±, she replies in a puzzled tone.
¡°And? ¡ Sorry, I have no clue, I couldn¡¯t understand¡±
¡°In One online if person have real life experience with one of the skills, system recognizes and automatically increases your proficiency. Since I am Iaido 2nd Dan, after few swing with sword, system increased my Swordsmanship to %60 and Tactics to %50¡±
¡°Holy ¡ !!! what???¡±
¡°Aren¡¯t you read manual of the game? Everything is well explained and if you have Collector¡¯s edition, advanced manual explains everything in more detail¡±
¡°I really need to read that manual sometime soon¡± after saying he bends his head and looks down.
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¡°Don¡¯t feel bad, not late for anything. ¡°, she smiles looking him. Touches his chin and lifts his head up with her small hands. ¡°This is just first day my friend, but I need to go now. See you around¡± she replies in a hurried tone and runs outside the gate to log off from the game.
¡°Farewell, ¡ my friend ¡ Calorfilia¡±
| Calorfilia added into friend list. |
¡°Awe? I couldn¡¯t mean to add her. Anyway what¡¯s done is done. I learned a bit more about One Online. I am not going to read that damn 300 pages long manual. I will learn by experience¡±, he told to himself and returned to southeast gate to return the quest.
Near the gate there are 5 guards. Two on the left, two on the right and one at front of the guard post. He approached the one front of the Guard post and asked:
¡°Hello Sir, I am looking for Southeast Gate Guard Lin¡±
¡°It¡¯s me, what is the reason of this disturbance while I am on duty?¡±
¡°Damn Guards, they are pissing me off¡± he told to himself, but in low and courteous tone he told to the guard.
¡°I have comleted Killing Zombie quest, sir¡±
¡°Nice, 29 Zombies, Do you have any Zombie Brain?¡±
Sky checks his inventory and there are 13 Zombie Brain and 4 Zombie Nail. He gives 13 Zombie Brain to the Guard.
| Quest ¡°Kill Zombies¡± Completed
700exp, 230 Gold gained. |
¡°Thanks, sir¡±, and he return his back, but while he was about to depart guard talks.
¡°Don¡¯t go kid, I have another task for you¡±
| Annoying Skeletons |
| Kill 10 or more Skeletons within cemetery
Skeletons can be found under passage within biggest tomb in graveyard
Return to Southeast Gate Guard Lin
|
[tr]Reward: | 1000 exp
300 gold
Extra experience and gold for more |
Sky happily accepts the quests and returns back to graveyard. There are 5 different stone tombs within graveyard. He chooses one which looks biggest and goes near the stone door of the tomb. He pushes and pushes with all his strength to budge the door.
¡°Ohh nice I was not expecting this¡± he says to himself after stat increases. He keeps pushing until there is enough space to slip inside. After a bit of respite, he slowly steps inside the stone tomb. Inside it is gloomy and cold. Only sun light enlightens the room that is coming from holes at ceiling and from the open door. He looks around the door and see a man sitting near the corner holding a long staff with red eyes.
¡°Hello¡± he says to the man.
Man stands up and walks to the middle of the room where sun light is lighting a bit.
"Wait, what?"
Chapter 6 - The Spirit
Sky gets shocked from the sight, he wants to run away with all his might but his legs doesn''t move. He gets terrified and feels a sudden headache within his head. Such a terrible one that, he feel like his head is about to explode and lich waves his staff a bit.
¡°Boom!¡±
| 129 Damage Received from Mind Blast |
¡°Holy ¡ What?¡±, this sudden damage after getting shocked by the appearance of Lich makes him wake up from his stunned situation. Only one idea wraps around his body. ¡°I need to run away! I need to run away¡± Sky tells to himself and runs outside from the open stone door which is just few meters away.
Once Sky is outside a loud noise fills the air as if thunder rumbled
¡°Claark !!!¡±
Sky turns back and finds that source of sound was closing of stone door.
¡°Trees could be seen everywhere, and the fresh air uplifted the spirits of Sky¡±, sky talks to himself randomly to relieve himself. This is side effect of playing alone for so many years; He often talks to himself sometimes as if he is a commentator, sometimes as if he is a teacher. But in this situation this time it is not out of boredom but out of stress and fear. While his heart still throbbing fast, he check his hp 1/130.
¡°If I couldn¡¯t gained 1 strength from pushing door, I would be dead by now¡±
After resting a while in front of the tomb which seems Zombies are not approaching near it, he begins to look around to find the correct tomb to kill the Skeletons. Then he realizes that biggest structure in cemetery is in the middle, surrounded by stone pillars with a huge open gate.
¡°What if there is bigger demon inside and I can¡¯t narrow escape this time?¡± he asks to himself and walks inside to tomb from the open gate killing a few zombies in his way.
Inside tomb is gloomy. There are pillars starting from the gate until the middle of the huge vacant room and in the middle there is a sarcophagus which looks like ancient.
¡°Hope there is no vampire or something like that inside, I don¡¯t want to face a strong enemy just want to kill some skeletons¡± he talks to himself and walks in the middle of the room where sarcophagus resides. On the marble there is a golden plate, Sky reads it loudly.
¡°King Kyrin lives in our hearts¡±
After that a small rattling sound is heard.
¡°HoooOo OOooOo hooOO hooo hUuuUu Leeee¡±
¡°What is that¡±, sky says to himself and lifts his head.
On the sarcophagus there is a man wearing gray colored robe. He looks pale as if he is dead. Sky thinks that he is some kind of cultist and man talks again
¡°HoooOo hUuuUu Leeee¡±
¡°I have no clue what you are trying to say¡±, Sky replies to man.
¡°BoOOoOo HeeeEe Leeee¡±
¡°If you are talking to me I don¡¯t even understand a word¡± he tells to man.
¡°BaAaaaAa HooOOoOo Leee¡±
¡°Yes exactly, I will do it¡± he tells to man without understanding anything from noises the strange man made.
| Spirit Speaking increased by %1 |
¡°What? So he is spirit, but what is spirit speaking¡± he talks to himself. He checks the Book of Arts but finds nothing like spirit speak in index. He looks to the strange spirit which still continues to make strange noises as if he is trying to tell something. Than he ignores the man walks into passage behind the stone pillar.
He finds the skeletons and sighs for moment. He watches the movement of skeleton for a while which is made of bones and shaking while walking and shattering its teeth, making weird noises all around the passage.
¡°Seems no big issue¡± he tells to himself and runs into skeleton taking his posture.
¡°Cutting Strike¡± he shouts and with a sudden movement he takes a step forward and blows the sword into skeletons head.
Skeleton¡¯s hp drops down to %90 percent after the blow, so he quickly calculates that this skeleton have 150hp should take 10 blows to kill it.
Skeleton waves his hands towards Sky but misses, so after consecutive sword strikes Skeleton¡¯s hp falls %20 percent.
Skeleton holds its left arm with right arm and pulls it outside, holding its arm with its right hand and throws towards sky like an arrow, hitting Sky¡¯s head.
|
Critical Hit!
80 Damage Received from Bone Sacrifice Strike |
¡°Ouch! I was not expecting this¡± he says to himself and quickly finishes the skeleton with another blow. Skeleton drops on the floor leaving pile of bones behind.
| Swordmanship increased by %1 |
| Chudan no Kamae posture learned |
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
¡°Ohh chudan? It was the form I was using, but I just learned it? Maybe in this fight I perfected it¡± he talks to himself and checks the Book of Arts to see effects of Chudan form.
| Chudan no Kamae: |
| Requirement | Beginner Swordsman |
| Effect: | Only effective when this form is taken while attacking
%20 increased Critical chance
%20 increased Damage to medium and large targets
%10 increased Dodge chance from medium and large targets
-%50 accuracy to small targets |
¡°-%50 accuracy to small targets? I understood that is why I can¡¯t hit Boings with this posture. Because they are so small, it is impossible to take this posture against them, hiding sword behind tip pointing their eyes¡± he talks to himself and he solves one of the mysteries of One Online with sudden insight.
Than he checks the piles of bones that skeleton left behind.
[table]| Bone Chest Armor |
| Type: | Light Armor | Durability: | 20/ 20 |
| Quality: | Poor |
| Effect: | 5 Defence | [tr]Chest of skeleton soldier, can be used as armor |
¡°At last something useable¡± he tells to himself and wears the bone armor. He keeps attacking, one after another to collect more Bone armor and complete the set.
| Bone Helmet |
| Type: | Light Armor | Durability: | 18/ 20 |
| Quality: | Poor |
| Effect: | 3 Defence | [tr]Skull of skeleton soldier, can be used as armor |
| Bone Leggings |
| Type: | Light Armor | Durability: | 19/ 20 |
| Quality: | Poor |
| Effect: | 3 Defence | [tr]Knee and leg bones of skeleton soldier, can be tied to body and used as armor |
¡°Each skeleton dropping a piece I guess¡±, he tells to himself and continues kill the Skeletons.
| Bone Gloves |
| Type: | Light Armor | Durability: | 14/ 20 |
| Quality: | Poor |
| Effect: | 2 Defence | [tr]Hand of skeleton soldier, can be tied to body and used as armor |
He completes the Bone Set and fills his inventory with a few extra.
With a few try with filling his inventory, he solves one of the mysteries of One Online.
¡°It seems if I carry more than half of the weight limit of my body, I begin to consume stamina while walking and attacking. So it is better to keep is safe around %40 of weight limit¡°, while talking to himself he finds the end of passage where a strange skeleton is standing.
This skeleton is a bit bigger than other skeletons he saw so far, holding a bloody sword and a round shield standing in between two fire blazes that coming from the big candles next to it with burning eyes.
And Skeleton Knight shouts,
¡°Hahahahahaha, End of path Human!¡±
"Wait, what?"
Chapter 7 - Lucky Strike
Skeleton Knight was first to react upon seeing Sky front of him and take a step forward. Stupefied Sky stood there while Skeleton Knight came closer. Skeleton lift his sword high and slash towards him from the rear side towards his chest, in mean while Sky came back to his senses and took a step backward avoiding a fatal injury.
A few bones flew towards the wall from the Sky; of course they were bones of Skeleton armor he was wearing. All of his body was covered and protected by stone solid skeleton soldier¡®s bones, which he found and wore while fighting skeletons.
¡°I am lucky that those bones were not mine, but I wonder if this armor can be repaired after¡±, Sky spoke to himself. He took his chudan stance and made the first clear hit to Skeleton Knights head.
After a closer look, he finds out that Skeleton Knight¡¯s hp dropped down to %94, he quickly calculates that its hp should be around 350.
¡°Pretty tough one, gona be hard¡±
Skeleton Knight¡¯s eyes shine like a burning star and talks in a mocking tone
¡°Hahahaha, you are going to die, Human¡± and swings its sword towards Sky again but this time aiming towards his shoulders.
¡°Clang¡± clash of metal can be heard all throughout the passage, echoing all around. It was because Sky, stops Skeleton Knight¡¯s short sword in mid-way.
After clash of swords, swords lock each other for a few second before Sky takes a step backward to make his second move with the happiness on his face because of the sudden system notification about new proficiency. Sky takes a step forward aiming towards Skeleton Knight¡¯s head again.
¡°Clang¡±, Skeleton Knight blocks his attack with his round shield.
¡°I won¡¯t receive same trick twice, human¡± and swings its short sword against Sky again.
Since because Sky is too close to Skeleton Knight holding sword with both of his hands, he can¡¯t recover from this position to quickly dodge of parry the attack. Only move he can think of himself is to block incoming sword with his left arm covered with bone gloves.
And he quickly checks his hp 88/130.
¡°I won¡¯t be able to hold it long, I need to do something¡±, he says to himself and thrusts the sword forward piercing Skeleton Knight¡¯s right shoulder.
After hearing a few bone breaking cracks, he takes a step backward to retake his stance again. Skeleton Knight brings his shield and sword closer to each other taking a defensive stance. Seeing Skeleton Knight not attacking, Sky thinks this is his chance to attack again he attacks his shoulder again but only hear a clashing sound of Sword and shield meeting each other.
¡°I need to do something¡±, Sky tells to himself. He starts to thinks about different figures that carved on the wall in dojo. One holding sword high, one holding sword down, ¡°I can use a different stance¡±, he tells to himself but which one.
With lots of questions and thoughts in his mind, Sky takes a step backward and gives a few meters distance between him and Skeleton Knight. He drops his shoulders down and his body centered on his right foot, slowly moves sword to his rear hiding it behind. Than he focuses all of his strength in his arms and shouts.
¡°Come on, pile of bone¡±
Skeleton Knight rushes against Sky. Sky¡¯s hands begin to emit shallow golden light while Skeleton Knight is coming forward. Skeleton swings his short sword towards Sky aiming his shoulder which is covered by Skeleton Soldier¡¯s big bone armor.
Suddenly Sky slashes his sword towards Skeleton sword. Sword passes through Skeleton¡¯s shoulder and its arm holding shield drops on the floor after a cracking sound from disjoints.
At the same time Skeleton Knight¡¯s short sword meets Sky¡¯s shoulder as well, passing through his bone cuts through his flesh.
He feels the sudden pain from his shoulder and checks his hp 64/130 and says to himself
¡°I am still in better condition than bony, it lost an arm¡±
He takes chudan stance again and strikes towards Skeleton Knights head.
With quick successions Sky avoids Skeleton Knights sword by taking a few quick small steps backward and striking taking steps forward to its head. Losing ability to defend itself from fierce attack of Sky, Skeleton Knights HP drops quickly and becomes a pile of bones after a few minutes.
After resting and recovering a few breaths long from the thrill of fight, Sky checks the bones for possible item drops.
| Bloody Cloak of Skeleton Knight |
| Type: | Garment | Durability: | 20/ 20 |
| Quality: | Rare |
| Effect: | 7 Defence
Increased enmity from city guards |
| Cloak washed by blood of humans killed by Skeleton Knight |
Sky¡¯s eyes full opened looks the item with a weird grin on his face and talk to himself.
¡°Rare Item, But increased enmity from guards. They are already behaving badly to me; I can¡¯t afford to wear this¡±
He checks for more items but only finds a few more bone armor which is similar to one he wear. Checking only durability, he swaps with higher durability ones with the one he wears and leaves the passage before skeleton¡¯s respawn.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.A girlish grin on his face, he jumps around while leaving cemetery and walks towards back to city to give quest and redeem rewards.
¡°Hello Sir Lin, I am back¡±, sky talks to Guard Lin which is standing next to guard post at southeast gate.
¡°Good, I was not expecting you to come back this quickly¡±
| Quest ¡°Annoying Skeletons¡± Completed
1500exp, 400 Gold gained. |
¡°Is there anything I can help you with Sir¡±, Sky asks respectfully.
¡°Yes there is one, but I don¡¯t know if you can complete. You might be going to your own grave, kid¡±
¡°Please tell Sir Lin, I will do anything within my power to complete the task¡±
¡°At the end of the passage below cemetery, there is a bloody murderer Skeleton Knight. Can you eliminate it and return its cloak¡±
Sky grins towards guard and accept the quest ignoring the system quest information
¡°I already killed Skeleton Knight, Sir¡± Sky says and takes the blue cloak which is covered by blood from his inventory and gives to the guard.
| Quest ¡°Bloody Murderer¡± Completed
2500exp, 1000 Gold gained.
Fame increased by 1000. |
Guard Lin which was not expecting to see the cloak to come from Sky¡¯s bag gets shocked and replies in more welcoming tone
¡°Good, Kid, Good. You are good. Take this, this is my spare sword¡± and gives a sword to Sky which was standing next to Guard post leaning towards wall.
| Standard Sword of City Guards |
| Type: | Sword | Durability: | 20/ 20 |
| Quality: | Normal |
| Effect: | Damage 2-6 | [tr]Speed: | 0.9/sec | [tr]Standard sword used by city guards |
¡°Thanks Sir¡±, Sky saluted to Guard Lin and leaves there quickly.
¡°I couldn¡¯t check my skills and stats for a while. Show status¡±
| Status Window |
| Name: | Sky Brightcloud | Alignment: | Good |
| Level: | 5 | Class: | None |
| Race: | Human | Gender: | Male |
Fame: | 1100 | Rank: | Commoner | | Merit: | 714 | Evil: | 0 |
| Health: | 130 | Mana: | 10 |
| Stamina: | 80 | Soul: | 100 |
| Strenght: | 13 | Dexterity: | 8 |
| Intelligence: | 1 |
¡°Level 5? I guess I missed one of the system notifications. Ohh and I got a skill in previous fight.¡±
| Power Strike: |
| Requirement[/tds][td2]Novice Swordsman |
| Effect: | %80 more Damage
Effect improves with mana |
| Uses: | %50 of mana |
¡°Novice swordman? Aint I was beginner swordman¡±, Sky asks to himself and checks the book of combat arts again.
| Swordmanship: |
| Rank | Novice | Progress | %41.3 |
| Effect: | Increases proficiency with sword.
Increases accuracy.
Increases damage. |
"And i got an other proficiency parrying"
| Parry: |
| Rank | None | Progress | %12.8 |
| Effect: | Increases chance to parry with sword by x/6
Increases chance to block with shield by x/4 |
"Good! at last a defensive skill. But even though I level up, my strength or HP doesn¡¯t increase. I wonder what¡¯s the mystery behind it", sky murmurs to himself.
Chapter 8 - Knowledge
Sky thinking deeply kept walking around and arrived a center square, which decorated with fountains and a stone statue. Same statue he saw before at the beginning. A man looking like a hero on his horse seems to be yelling for victory.
Behind statue there is a girl standing, seems to be around late 20s or early 30s with full white dress emitting holy light around it. Sky gets closer to differentiate if she is a player or NPC.
| Advanced Player Guide
Xin |
¡°Guide for new players or GM?¡± Sky thinks and goes near the Xin standing next to fountain.
¡°Hi¡±, sky said smiling to the beautiful girl surrounded by some kind of mystic light.
¡°Hi Sky, I am Xin¡±
¡°Sorry to ask, are you NPC or GM¡±
Xin laughs a bit in a soft voice and says
¡°I am an advanced player guide, checking a few players who followed this path without noticing the warnings. I am not a game master but a community manager, CM. Is there anything I can help you with?¡±
¡°I would be glad if you can reply a few questions I am puzzled with, Miss¡±
¡°Please ask, but only three questions. It¡¯s not allowed for us to spoil too much to new players¡±
¡°Then here is my first question, I want to learn more about stats, how they grow and if there is any stat cap¡±
She smiles and looks the face of Sky for a moment without talking.
¡°It seems, you are one of players who rushed into the game without reading player guides nor warnings. As you are level five, you should already know about stats. I can guess the purpose of this question from your puzzled face¡±, she laughed again and continues.
¡°Firstly stats can be increased by any activity. Fighting with melee weapons will increase your strength greatly. Fighting with ranged weapons will increase your dexterity greatly and casting magic will increase your intelligent greatly as you can guess. Crafting can increase all of your stats depending on the job. Other than those doing any activity such as lifting boulders or running for a while can increase your stats. Best way is for you to find, I can¡¯t spoil it.¡±
¡°Lifting boulders¡± sky looked her with puzzled eyes.
¡°Yes, you can lift stones or bigger boulders around mountain site to increase strength. If you want a tip, pushing into your limits will increase your stats faster.¡±
¡°Pushing limits, how?¡±
¡°Like when you have 10 strength, lifting 100 pound stones or running as fast until your stamina start decreasing¡±
¡°I understood, Thanks for the tip Xin. What about stat cap?¡± sky asked politely. He begins to think maybe he can try to go mountains or running around to increase his stats. If he can find a river side or a lake, he can even try swimming. After a moment of thinking he continues listening.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
¡°As for stat cap, it is level multiplied by five. Like when you are level 5, all of your stats can be increased to 25 if you work enough on them¡±
¡°Thanks, Miss Xin. This was great help. I have another question that was giving me headache for a long time. I heard if you are professional martial artist in real life, system gives you advantage, how casual players can close this gap¡±
¡°Nice question, but it is all written in players manual in detail. I will just reply shortly. First of all there is only gap at start. We value equality, so system assist players to be equal. ¡± after a brief sigh from her, she continues.
¡°At beginning people with martial art skills will start with higher proficiencies and it will be easier for them to develop skills. This part is true advantage.
¡°But in later game for a person who increased proficiency to 70 through gaming and who increased to 70 by 30 years real life experience. How can they be equal in term of experience?¡±
¡°One online will improve knowledge of person in real life as well. One¡¯s reflexes and combat knowledge but of course in real life they will never be equal. But in one online if your opponent is inferior to you in proficiency system will assist you. For example, if your swordsmanship is master level at %90 and opponent is real life practitioner with %70 swordsmanship. Once your opponent try to hit you, if your game headset is over 12000XR, it will signal your nervous system in brain and you will try to dodge by reflex. Of course one who learned through real life experience will be faster in reflexes but you will still have chance against real experts in One Online.¡±
¡°Than proficiencies with weapons are a lot important than stats, isn¡¯t it?¡±
¡°At early games both important, but at late games only proficiencies and skills comes in handy. Also system doesn¡¯t allow lucky shot.¡±
¡°What you mean doesn¡¯t allow?¡±
¡°If opponent is too inferior to you in term of in game experience, System will warn your brain and will be forced to dodge or parry the attack. After all nobody likes to take damage and suffer pain, unless you are masochist¡± Xin said and she starts to laugh.
¡°I answer quite a few question of yours, for now I need to go. Hope to see you around Sky¡±, she says as she is smiling.
¡°Thanks for the information and the tips¡±, Sky said and Xin disappeared in thin air.
Sky smiles happily and looks towards fountain where Xin was standing a few seconds before. As most of questions are answered in his head, Sky walks towards crafting district to check for new items and possible adventures.
¡°Maybe, I can learn crafting, blacksmithing. Maybe¡±
Chapter 9 - To the Mountains
On the finger post was written ¡°Crafting District¡±. Sky followed throughout the road reading the signs of every shop on the way.
¡°Cori The Herbalist¡±
¡°Matilda¡¯s Bakery¡±
¡°Tailor Shop¡±
¡°Architect Tedio¡¯s Palace¡± sky read and laughed. ¡°This is just a stone house, how can it be called as palace¡± and continued walking, looking for blacksmith.
¡°Carpenter Bowie¡±
¡°Cook Joy¡±
¡°Fenie The Cobbler¡±
As he kept walking and reading the signs randomly learning about the shops, he heard a metaling sound.
¡°Dong¡±
Sky stopped reading the signs with small but quick steps walked towards the source of sound.
There was a man near anvil punching heated iron. This was a huge shop as big as combination of four or five shops. Next to anvil there was a round small furnace, made of stones. Than Sky realized there are other furnaces and anvils next to them five in total. But only one was occupied which seems to a player crafting something with metalsmith. Sky thought if he was a craftsman, he would be furious if somebody interrupted, so he decided to wait for man to finish before approaching.
He kept punching and punching the metal with a brown colored hammer. As Sky was pretty far from the sight, he could only understand it was a metal thing that he was punching from the sound but cannot see the shape. After five minutes or so, man stopped and put the metal inside a water bucket. Only than when he lifted the metal high, Sky saw that it was some kind of sword in zigzag shape which he never saw before.
Sky approached near man.
¡°Hi, Hattori Hanzo?, Kill Bill?¡±, Sky said and looked the man with curious eyes. Man took a step back. A great shock could be seen on his face. He looked Sky from head to toe then replied.
¡°Hi. Sorry, I was not expecting to see a player in this city. Yes, I liked movie Kill Bill so much that I thought I should name myself Hattori Hanzo, but you can call me Kevin¡±
¡°I am Sky, Nice to meet you Kevin. May I ask what were you crafting?¡±
Kevin held the wavy shaped sword like weapon. After looking it for a while said.
¡°This is kryss, a fencing weapon, one of dagger type. Blacksmith Lur gave me a task to make one¡±
¡°Looks promising, may I ask what the attack power is?¡±
¡°No need to ask here, take a look¡± he said and gave the kryss to Sky.
| Kryss |
| Type: | Dagger | Durability: | 30/ 30 |
| Quality: | Normal |
| Effect: | Damage 2-4 | [tr]Speed: | 1.3/sec | [tr]Kryss crafted by Hattori Hanzo |
Sky examined the kryss and the system information for a while then tried swinging the kyrss.
¡°It is faster than I expected and pretty light, thanks for showing¡± and gave kyrss back.
¡°Yes its weight is 7, but sharpness is poor quality. I have a long way to go, before I can make a perfect katana like in movie¡± Kevin said and laughed after.
¡°Weight and Sharpness, how can you understand them¡± Sky asked.
¡°After learning item identification, I was able to see weight of items and after learning arms lore I can see sharpness of weapons. Here take this book, it teaches you item identification. I bought an extra from Lur by mistake¡± he said and gave yellow colored book to Sky.
Sky took the book and looked into it.
| Item Identification Learned |
He checked his book of combat arts but there was no change.
¡°How can I see description of Item Identification? This game is weird there is no skill window¡± sky said in reproaching tone.
¡°You need book of Common Arts. Yes it is a bit weird at start. But I heard you will be able to take disciplines in later game and make a copy of your skills to a scroll and pass it to your disciplines. That is why they say books are ones legacy.¡±
¡°I understood, nice to know. How much money I owe you?¡± Sky asked.
¡°Book was 300 golds, but it is no big deal. If you want to learn Arms Lore you need to take quest from Lur and craft a dagger for him.¡±
¡°Thanks for your help¡±, Sky said respectfully and handed him 300 golds for the book.
¡°Take this six iron ingot, You can learn blacksmithing from Lun for 300gold, and buy a book of craftsman for 250gold by using system assist it will take a minute to craft dagger. You don¡¯t need to do it manually like I did.¡±, Kevin continued talking.
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Sky was already tankful towards Kevin for helping him this much, but got a bit puzzled after last words of him and asked politely as possible.
¡°I am sorry, it might be so rude to ask, but why are you helping me this much?¡±
Kevin patted Sky¡¯s shoulder and laughed.
¡°Don¡¯t over think, You are first player I saw in this city. It is pretty lonely around. I heard only a few thousand took path of advanced players out of millions of players. And populated countries are in different channel, so it I just don¡¯t want to lose an opportunity to have a friend and team up in this city¡±
Sky smiled after hearing Kevin talk in a hectic way. He thought for a moment than said
¡°Sorry, we can of course team up. Where are you heading to, do you have plan in your mind?¡±
¡°Yes I was about to go to mountains to mine iron, and craft better items. Maybe I can craft a weapon and armor for you. ¡°, hearing this Sky looked Kevin with an unwilling face. Because he was not planning to waste time on things like mining or crafting that much, but he thought he can play with stones and boulders to increase his strength. So he said
¡°Ok, let me take arms lore and we can set sailing¡±, Sky said laughing.
¡°Take mining skill as well, mining can also increase strength so easily. With your level of 5, you can carry 2 times more iron than I can. I can easily craft items out of them for you¡± Kevin said. Sky just nodded to him and went inside the shop to meet the Blacksmith Lur.
Sky couldn¡¯t chat long with Lur, just told him that he wanted to learn blacksmithing and gave him 300 gold fee of learning. Lur showed Sky how to punch the heated iron with blacksmith hammer and after Sky tried it.
Sky bought a Book of Craft for 250gold to check his new proficiency and Lur asked him to craft a dagger as Kevin mentioned before.
| Blacksmithing: |
| Rank | Beginner | Progress | %30.0 |
| Effect: | Able to craft metal items
Chance of crafting better item increases by x/10 |
| Iron Dagger Recipe: |
| Requirement[/tds][td2]%25 Blacksmithing
Iron Anvil
Furnace |
| Effect: | Chance for successful craft is %60 + Bonus effects + (Blacksmithing/4)
Chance increases with better Blacksmith Hammer
Chance Incresases with better anvil
Chance Incresases with better furnace |
| Uses: | 6 Iron Ingot |
Sky looked new learned skill and recipe with astonishment and went to outside where Kevin was waiting. He stand next to furnace and anvil and selected the dagger shape in his book and system took control and his hands started moving automatically. First heated iron in blazing furnace next to him and started beating the iron after with 21 hammer hits it was finished.
| Dagger successfully crafted |
| Dagger |
| Type: | Dagger | Durability: | 10/ 10 |
| Quality: | Poor |
| Effect: | Damage 1-3 | [tr]Speed: | 1.2/sec | [tr]Weight: | 6 | [tr]Dagger crafted by Sky |
¡°My first successful item craft, Wohooo!¡±, Sky shouted and jumped upwards as kids do, holding his new crafted dagger. Kevin congratulated him nodding his head. After examining his newly crafted dagger with astonishment, he went back inside to finish his quest.
¡°Time to go to mountains¡±, Sky said and he together with Kevin departed from the Blacksmithing Workshop to go to mountains.
Chapter 10 - Into the Mine
They formed a party and set off from the north gate to the mountains. Mountain side is thirty minutes walking distant. Road to the mountains is covered with dense forest and wild animals. Wild animals are mostly consisting of deers, hinds, rabbits, mountain goats, a few monkeys and rarely wild horses. They kept walking as they speak and get familiarized with each other.
¡°Last time I went to small mining site on the rear side of the mountain, this time we should try bigger one. Miner said there are 12 mines in total around the mountain¡±, Kevin told to Sky.
Mountain was visible from the current location, it was not high as much as Sky expected. At hillside of the mountain tunnels were visible and at front of the tunnel there was a few guards and other who seem to be miners.
¡°Halt¡±, one of guard shouted.
One of the Miners holding a half meter long pickaxe rushed towards them and talked.
¡°I am Jack, leader of Caolia Miners. Currently this Mine is sealed, you should go another one if you came for mining¡± he said politely looking to the Kevin.
¡°Why what is wrong with this one?¡± Kevin asked.
¡°This mine is filled with Kobolds. Currently we are waiting for a special team to arrive and take Mines back from the hand of Kobolds.¡±
¡°Is it possible if we take the task of cleaning the Mine¡±, Sky asked to the miner.
¡°I would not recommend with just two people party, but I wouldn¡¯t say no, if you are willing to kill a few Kobolds¡±
| Clean Caolia Mine |
| Coalia mine has been raided by Kobolds, leaded by a strong Kobold Captain.
Kill as much as possible kobolds as you can.
Return Miner Jack for rewards.
Recommended 3+ players¡¯ party because of kobold density
|
| Reward: | 200 exp per Kobold
100 gold per Kobold
5000 golds and experience for Kobold Captain |
¡°I will gladly accept the task¡±, Sky said.
¡°We couldn¡¯t even check level of Kobolds, are you sure?¡±, Kevin asked to Sky.
¡°Ya, trust me. Kobolds are weakest in most of the games. At most we can abandon the quest and go to another mine.¡±
¡°Did you learn Mining¡± Kevin asked to Sky
¡°Ohh, I forgot that Kevin¡±
¡°One of Miners standing there should be teacher go ask them¡±
Sky asked one of the miners about Mining, he gladly accepted teaching him mining for 300gold. Mining was easy. Miner went near mountain hills and hit one of the boulders with his pickaxe. He kept hitting without losing momentum for ten times and gave his pickaxe to Sky and told him to try. After a few try he understood the logic of using reflection of pickaxe from the hard stone, using less strength to dig further. Not losing momentum was important, because with each swing of pickaxe, stone was showing less resistant using less strength. If he stopped for a breath, he would need to start over to catch the pace again.
¡°I see, mining is great way of increasing Strength¡±, Sky talked loudly to Kevin who was standing distant.
¡°Yes, if you want we can mine while we kill kobolds inside. What you hit is just a stone boulder, you won¡¯t gain iron from it.¡±
¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± Sky said with high spirit and they entered the mine.
The entrance to the mine was made of a large tunnel, big enough for 5 men to fit alongside. The tunnel was lit by gas lamps and was supported by wooden columns, but it was still a bit gloomy. Inside the mine, there was intense smell of sulfur in the air and floor was wet.
¡°This mine is a bit different than the one I visit previously¡± Kevin said.
¡°How so?¡±, Sky asked.
¡°It was natural, this one is man-made¡±
After walking in the tunnel around 15 meters, they arrived a large mining site lit by torches around. In the middle there was a half mater long, rat faced man was standing holding a pickaxe in his hands. On his head there was a candle that lights around.
Sky rushed towards mining kobold telling Kevin to wait. Took his Chudan stance and swing his sword over its head.
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¡°Small target .. Damn¡±, he cursed a few time and tried taking sword to rear side and slash with Power Strike.
After this successful blow, he kept attacking using this stance. Sword at his rear side, he kept swinging left and right.
Kobold lifted its pickaxe high and bashed towards Sky¡¯s foot.
After a few more sword slash he killed the Kobold Miner which had 130hp.
Together with Kevin, they killed another Kobold Miner. It was a lot easy to kill with two people without taking damage. After killing a few more kobolds, Sky understood more about his new stance from the response of kobolds. Sky hid the length of his own blade behind his body only exposing the pommel to the opponent and used as deterrent to opponents who did not know the range of the sword being hidden. Since his guard was down while in this stance, could be used as a sort of bluff technique which had taunting effect on kobolds. It was making them rush in to attack stupidly. Stance also serves to conceal the orientation of the blade to opponent, as to give no hint about your own intention for the next attack.
Sky began to take liking to this stance, it was easy to hit twice in a row as well and opponent was rushing into battle without taking defensive stance. They killed 20 of kobold miners and moved forward further into the mine.
Kevin was also useful in battle as well. He was using a sword too, as you can guess from the name Hattori Hanzo, one of the great samurais of history. He was swiftly getting begin Kobold and striking weak spots while Sky was keeping them busy.
Once they are in middle of mine, they saw a bigger kobold. This one was armed with sword rather than pickaxe and was wearing some kind of armor on. They got near stealthily, without getting seen by big kobold.
¡°I thought this one was, captain. But it seems there is still too much way to captain¡± Sky whispered towards Kevin not to attract any kobold around. He rushed towards kobold soldier without thinking. Kobold soldier was harder than miners, but it was piece of cake for Sky who killed skeleton knight before. Together with Kevin they swiftly killed kobold soldiers along the path and suddenly.
¡°At last, I perfected this stance¡±, Sky said to himself and checked the book of combat arts.
[tr]| Wakigamae : | | Requirement | Beginner Swordsman |
| Effect: | Only effective when this form is taken while attacking
Taunts opponent
%30 increased Damage
%10 increased hit chance
%10 increased Received Damage |
Sky looked skill description extremely satisfied. There was penalty of taking %10 more damage, but he already felt it before so this was expected. They continued killing kobold soldiers, in meanwhile Kevin got level 3 and Sky¡¯s strength is increased by 2, and they reached to the end of the mine.
At end there was a kobold which was uglier than others. So ugly faced that you would vomit upon seeing once. It was about same size of kobold miners but had bigger tail, was holding a golden pickaxe wearing some kind of chain mail. After checking the surroundings, Sky came out of the rock facing the kobold.
¡°It is gona be hard¡±, Sky said to himself.